A top-ranking US Navy (USN) official stated that the service wants to enhance the Sixth-generation F/A-XX program to organize for potential confrontations with adversaries, together with Iran.
Making a case for the US Navy’s F/A-XX fighter jet program, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Daryl Caudle, said that adversaries like Iran have gotten extra able to taking pictures down the Navy’s present workhorse, the F/A-18E/F Tremendous Hornets, because of the fast proliferation of refined anti-aircraft techniques.
The timing of those feedback is intriguing, as a large navy build-up within the Central Command theatre of duty ordered by the Pentagon is at present underway. The belongings dispatched to the area embody the USS Abraham Lincoln Plane Provider Strike Group (CSG), which is loaded with warplanes similar to Tremendous Hornets, F-35s, and EA-18G Growlers.
“Now we have a giant drive going in the direction of Iran,” Trump informed reporters final week. “And possibly we received’t have to make use of it… Now we have a variety of ships going that course.” The remarks and the buildup have triggered speculations that america could also be making ready for one more assault on Iran, simply months after it launched ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’ in June 2025.
“When issues heated up in Iran, guess who steamed over there, proper? It was america Navy and the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group,” Caudle was quoted in a latest report. “Think about what that appears like in ten years from now, with a distinct Iran, with completely different functionality [that] can go towards the F-18 capabilities of as we speak.”
The USN high boss was talking in regards to the futuristic F/A-XX throughout a reside question-and-answer session on the Apex Defence convention earlier this week. Notably, this can be the first time any US official has projected the F/A-XX as a requirement to fight the sustained safety menace posed by Iran.
It’s price mentioning that in the course of the US ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’ that concerned bombing of Iran’s nuclear amenities, the B-2 bombers have been accompanied by F-35s that carried out SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defence) missions and escorted by the F-22 Raptors.
Nonetheless, the USN high boss seems cautious of the capabilities Tehran may amass nicely into the long run.
“I hate to say it, sounds cliche, however you realize, when issues warmth up in Iran, guess who steamed over there? Proper? It was america Navy and the Abraham Lincoln Provider Strike Group,” the Navy’s high officer stated. “So you possibly can think about what that appears like 10 years from now, with a distinct Iran, with completely different capabilities, that may go towards F-18 capabilities of as we speak.”
Among the many dangers posed by Iran to the US Navy, the Admiral additionally pointed to help acquired by international locations like Iran and North Korea from main navy powers like China and Russia by numerous back-channel networks and third-party transactions.
“That is an ever-evolving theme, and if you’ve acquired partnerships … nicely, coupled with one another throughout China and Russia and Iran and North Korea, and terrorist teams which can be getting that equipment from all of these by back-channel methods, our capacity to fly with impunity with our current airframes is fleeting,” he continued. “So, if I don’t begin constructing that [F/A-XX] instantly, you’re not going to get it for a while.”
It’s price noting that though the US Navy is transitioning to the F-35C by changing the F/A-18E/F, the non-stealthy Tremendous Hornets stay its workhorse.
The Tremendous Hornets and their Digital Warfare variant, the EA-18G Growler, have been a part of the air wings of all US plane carriers which were moved out and in of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) space of duty within the final two years.
Nonetheless, they might not be sufficient to fight the rising navy energy of Iran and its proxies, such because the Yemen-based Houthis. Each Iran and its axis of resistance possess cutting-edge air defence techniques that may threaten the US Navy’s strike and ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) belongings.
For example, the Houthis have been capable of down greater than 20 MQ-9 Reaper drones regardless of being non-state actors.
So far as Iran is anxious, its built-in air defence community (IADN) allegedly contains long-range surface-to-air missile techniques (SAMs) able to partaking plane at distances as much as 400 kilometres. A few of the key Iranian techniques embody the home Bavar-373, which is akin to the S-300 and able to intercepting targets at altitudes as much as 27 kilometres.
These air defence techniques may goal US Navy fighter jets, similar to F/A-18 Tremendous Hornets, launched from carriers such because the USS Abraham Lincoln, particularly throughout close-air help or strike missions towards Iranian targets.
In such a situation, non-stealthy Tremendous Hornets could be extra susceptible since adversaries like Iran are growing refined air defences that make it tougher for america to “fly with impunity.”
The US Navy’s high boss believes that the F/A-XX would considerably exceed the capabilities of the F-35 and produce enhanced stealth, firepower, and digital warfare to the air wings of US Navy plane carriers.
The Navy Wants F/A-XX
The F/A-XX is supposed to interchange the F/A-18 Tremendous Hornet and outperform the F-35. It’s anticipated to have a 25% longer vary than the F-35C model.
Based on Caudle, additionally it is anticipated to function extra superior jammers than the current EA-18G Growler, in addition to the built-in functionality to command a number of unmanned loyal-wingman drones generally known as Collaborative Fight Plane (CCAs), that are thought of essential for bolstering the survivability of manned fighter jets in trendy aerial warfare.
This drive multiplier functionality would allow it to coordinate swarms of drones for reconnaissance, digital warfare, or strike missions, thereby overwhelming adversaries’ defences. Moreover, outfitted with next-generation sensors and knowledge hyperlinks, F/A-XX will improve situational consciousness, enabling real-time concentrating on and coordination with belongings similar to early warning plane, plane carriers, and floor ships.
“The subsequent-generation airframe, F/A-XX, is so very important,” Caudle summed up. “It’s very important due to, one, the CCAs it’s going to command and management. Its penetration — the Growlers received’t final perpetually, so it’ll be our digital assault airplane as nicely. Its vary will likely be coupled with the MQ-25 [unmanned tanker] for clandestine refueling and natural refueling from the provider.”
He reportedly informed the Apex Defence convention that solely an plane with all the set of capabilities envisioned for F/A-XX—stealth, vary, digital warfare, and the flexibility to command flocks of unmanned “loyal wingmen”—can constantly breach future air defences, together with these of Iran.
“This [carrier] air wing of the long run design is so essential for therefore many causes … nothing delivers the mass of an air wing if you wish to ship mass fires.”
As well as, F/A-XX will likely be able to conducting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations, digital warfare, and battle area administration. Furthermore, the plane’s enhanced endurance would help extended missions, that are important for sustaining a presence in huge operational theatres.
“I do know this stuff are costly, and I do know the defence industrial base is compressed, however we’ve acquired to determine how one can stroll and chew gum right here with plane,” he added.
Caudle’s feedback argue for accelerating the F/A-XX program, which has been on the again burner to leverage its assets in help of the US Air Power’s F-47 sixth-generation plane, a contract for which was awarded to Boeing in March 2025.
In June 2025, the Pentagon requested that the Home and Senate defence coverage committees divert $500 million from the “accelerated improvement” of a Navy stealth fighter to the F-47. “Concurrently pursuing two sixth-generation fighters dangers under-delivery on each,” the Pentagon said.
Nonetheless, the USN program is now anticipated to obtain a brand new lease of life because the Home and Senate Appropriations Committees just lately revived funding for the F/A-XX carrier-based next-generation fight jet program whereas denouncing the Pentagon for its failure to award key improvement contracts for the F/A-XX.
It negotiated a draft defence spending invoice earmarking $900 million for the F/A-XX, marking a stark enhance from the $74 million allotted by the Nationwide Defence Authorization Act signed into regulation final month.
The committee printed a Joint Explanatory Assertion report with extra data and Congressional steerage.
“The settlement helps the Navy’s efforts to develop the F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter and understands this system’s distinctive functionality in delivering air superiority to the fleet, together with larger operational vary, pace, stealth, and enhanced survivability,” the committee wrote within the invoice.
Moreover, the proposed invoice and the report search to lastly compel the stalled number of the F/A-XX competitors’s winner. As of now, Boeing and Northrop Grumman appear to be within the operating for the competition.
Nonetheless, for the invoice to turn out to be regulation and for the funding to undergo, it must be accepted by each homes and signed by the President.
